


When will I be Changed?

by cruelest_month



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Cannibalism, Developing Relationship, Horror, M/M, Mercreature Elias, Monsters in love, Protection through murder, Violent ends for innocent people, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 22:59:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19799518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruelest_month/pseuds/cruelest_month
Summary: Elias has made a bargain with Peter Lukas to try to find love on land. When it all falls apart, he's given a choice and with it a chance at something better.





	When will I be Changed?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an anon prompt on tumblr: "Peter/ Elias, Mermaid AU, pls?" Slightly based on the Little Mermaid but much, much darker. Thank you, Whiskeyjack for reading it over and Jenavira for initial suggestions.

Elias sat in the corner of the club, trembling slightly. His hands were clamped around a glass of water as he waited. The static and whistling began after a handful of moments.

“How’s love treating you? No, I’m sorry, I don’t need to ask.” Peter sighs and sits down beside him. “Unfair, to put it mildly,” he continues quietly. “People are always so disappointing. Not that you would know. Still, the first time’s the worst so at least you’ve gotten that out of the way.”

Elias shrugs awkwardly.

“I’ve been thinking… This is between us, but I’ve a way out. You were better off away from all this and you didn’t know any better. I’d like you to go back.”

Elias raises an eyebrow.

“Oh, I know, I know. Stupid of me, but I don’t really want what you gave me anyway. It’s unsettling.”

Peter sets a hand on the table, tapping against it. He orders a martini when a waitress stops by to check on Elias. The waitress never looks at him.

“You won’t like it. What I need you to do. It requires action. I know how you feel about that.”

Elias sighs without a sound.

Peter sets down a black dagger carved from obsidian. “Kill him and take what you need. You’ll know what to do with it. All of your precious words will come pouring back. The rest will be waiting for you at the docks.”

Elias pulls out a pad of paper and writes shakily on it.

“Why?” Peter looks sad for a moment. “I rather thought you knew.”

Elias tilts his head and touches Peter’s cheek.

Peter smiles slightly, patting Elias’ hand. “I like the way it feels when you’re watching me. I like when you come up beside the ship and listen with all your eyes on me. The strange way you would sing to me when I was alone on deck. Took me awhile to sort out you were giving me coordinates and it’s been immensely profitable. You’ve wanted none of it. You never mind when I don’t give you credit. So if you were gone, I’d miss you.”

Elias runs a hand down his cheek starting from under his eyelid. His purple eyes flash and dim.

“Ah, you’re touched then? Or mocking me.”

_Touched_ , Elias writes. _Thankful_.

“So we are friends,” Peter says with a bit of cheer. “Good. I don’t have many of those. I daresay you don’t either.”

Elias nods.

The waitress returns and sets Peter’s drink down in front of Elias. Once she leaves, Elias slides it over to him.

“Cheers. Oh. If his fiancé is there, I would do something about him too.”

Elias nods again.

“You should go now then. If you don’t do it tonight, I’m afraid you won’t get a tomorrow. And I’ll be stuck with your skin, which, again, I’m not keen on keeping.”

It could be a trick. Elias isn’t sure he should trust Peter sometimes. He’s a sailor who doesn’t truthfully enjoy sailing. He’s friendly without any friends. He’s rich but he doesn’t enjoy it. He takes things he doesn’t want or need.

What else is there to do? He can feel the fog coiling around him as he exits the bar. Something is waiting to devour him if he doesn’t devour… It’s better to not think of his name. Elias needs to devour his heart, that’s all that matters.

He picks the lock with the dagger, sliding the door open silently. He hears them laughing in the kitchen. One of them is opening a bottle of wine. They’re discussing their travel plans and wedding gifts.

Elias hits the lights and moves along the floor. He reaches up behind the one who stole his love away and slices his neck open.

His lover screams and yells but not for long. Elias stabs and stabs and stabs into him with the dagger, carving a circle in the chest and plucking out the heart.

Elias’ hands grow longer and webbed. His nails turn to black claws as Elias bites into it as though it were an apple and sobs before chewing. He keeps eating, bile rising in the back of his throat.

He keeps the heart down as he runs the shower, washing the blood away and spitting up nothing so much as the taste of bitter sorrow and murderous anger. Killing hadn’t been enough. He’s given up so much and he’s got nothing to show for it.

There’s a chime on the phone he’d been given by Peter at the start of this.

_The mess isn’t your concern. Just leave when you’re done._

_h e l p i t h u r t s_

_Only for now. Only until it doesn’t. Come find me._

Elias does as he is told. He’s getting strange looks as he heads for the docks. His hair is a wild and matted green. His eyes are wide and spherical and strange again. He can see much better but it makes a couple gasp. He pulls up the hood of his sweatshirt as he sprints to Peter’s ship.

Peter is standing near the gangplank. “Aren’t you lovely…”

Elias ducks his head. “I know what I am,” he rasps, his voice faint and strangled from disuse.

“I doubt very much that you do.”

“I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have touched them.”

Peter waits.

“It felt _perfect_. It felt like what they deserved and now I’m not the same. If I go back, the void will reject me. The others… They won’t want me.” The others never killed. The others never spoke. The others rarely moved. Elias has done all of these things and more.

“He never actually loved you. He never knew you, but I like what I see. I see you. I know you.”

Elias frowns. “I can’t trust you.”

“Can’t you?” Peter brings his hands out behind his back. He is holding a long stretch of flesh covered in dark scales and bright-colored eyes.

“My skin.”

“Yes, take this. Can’t do a thing with it. Damned thing matches absolutely nothing I own.”

Elias brings the skin up to his lips. He kisses it, licking at the salt clinging to wet eyes that have missed him oh so much. He swallows it whole, retaining his current form. He has access to others now, to his true self, and no… He’s not sure anyone has ever loved him.

Peter has been watching this curiously. He smiles when Elias is done. “There. You can disappear in a normal way. No turning into fog or foam forever.”

Elias narrows his eyes. “I won’t give it back.”

“Believe me when I say I have no interest in your skin unless it’s on you. Is that acceptable?”

He ducks his head again, feeling warm. He’s blushing, he realizes. He’s only done this a handful of times before. “So what is it you want? For me to try again with you?”

“No,” Peter says firmly. “No, I don’t think you should ever have to love me, Elias. If you choose to, that’s fine, but don’t make any deals on my account.”

Elias blinks.

“Here’s what I want from you. What I’ve wanted since I first heard you sing: Just keep me company and let me do the same. You’ve never been like the creatures where you’re from so forget them. Show me everything that’s just out of my reach so I can give it to you. Leave whenever you like, return whenever you want.”

“That sounds like love,” Elias says quietly. “Like the sort of love I can give.” He bites back a sob and sinks to one knee. “Oh. He couldn’t give me that. He could never…”

Peter kneels down beside him. “Most people can’t. I’m not most people.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Elias manages, wiping furiously at his face. “Why did I have to do this?”

Peter draws him closer, setting a warm hand against his spine. There are some spikes there, under his shirt and stiff with keratin. Peter brushes fingers over them and Elias purrs quietly.

“I had to show you the truth. So that you would know what it was for yourself. So that you could see it. So you could choose. I had to hurt you. Just a little.”

Elias sniffs. In part because he is in pain but mostly because he wants to be coddled. “It all hurts.”

Peter tightens his grip and rises to his feet with Elias in his arms. “Let’s get a proper meal in you then. Do you need the water yet?”

Elias shakes his head. “I will need to swim later.”

“All right. I think you’ll like what we have.”

Elias kisses Peter’s forehead. He’ll need to bit him later, mark him as his own. He will come away with this with someone, after all. He will let Peter have him in return so long as Peter will be his. If not, there is always the dagger and the open water around them.

“I think I will,” Elias murmurs against Peter’s lips as he’s being kissed. “I think I will.”


End file.
